Organizers: Erin E. Benay, Case Western Reserve University & Lisa Rafanelli, Manhattanville College

In recent years, numerous conference sessions and symposia have addressed the role of the senses in the genesis and reception of Renaissance art. Much of the important work to have emerged from these conversations concerns the revaluing of the visual reception of art in the period and has suggested the importance of touch, hearing, and even smell and taste in the multi-sensory experience of early modern art. Building on this rich dialogue, this session aims to explore the way the senses were evoked in devotional contexts, where questions of the validity of sensory experience were particularly contentious. We invite papers that focus especially on the ways in which the senses operated with regard to issues of narrative structure, the intersection of the senses and epistemology in sacred art, or how sensory perception and its representation was delimited by gender and viewership.

Please email (as MS Word attachments) an abstract of no more than 150 words, a one-page CV, and contact information to both organizers by June 1. erin.benayoswego.edu Lisa.Rafanellimville.edu